Ripples In A Pond
by Io Mahone 5
Summary: His parents die, yet he isn't left alone, but looked after by someone. Follow Uzumaki Naruto and Umenomiya Nanae as they handle the ups and downs of the family and shinobi lives. Nanae is young, belonging to the middle generation together with Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, Gai and plenty others. Accepting OC's. Will contain Romance, Friendship, Family and many other genre.


**This is my first Naruto story, so please be nice.**

**I've always loved OC stories, simply because I love the unpredictability and the dynamics.**

**This story starts from the year Naruto is born, and will cover his first seven years. He won't grow up to be exactly the Naruto you know from the franchise. Since I add characters, which in turn will change history in their own ways, nothing will end up exacly like in the franchise.**

**If you're interested in submitting an OC or several, take a peek at my profile and you will find the OC submittion form. (If I haven't had the time to post my OC form yet, you'll just have to wait.)**

**The OC's that I accept are the ones I post on my own profile (with your username beside it, of course).**

**I accept OC's through both review and PM.**

**This is simply a prologue.**

-x-x-x-x-x-

Her screams roar loudly through the large cavern, squeezing her companions' hand dangerously close to the breaking point. Her eyes wide with unshed tears and her mouth wide open, agonizing sounds leaving her repeatedly. Her dark blue eyes lock onto her husband, begging him to relieve her pain, even though it is impossible. Her fiery red hair with pink hues is spread over the dark stone table. The womans best friend and little sister, for all intense and purposes, winces slightly at the womans grip on her hand.

"It **hurts!**" The woman lying on the table roars and draws out the last syllable with a shriek.

"Um... I've never seen her cry out in pain like this before... Do you... really think she'll be okay?" The man holding both his hands above her belly asks hesitantly. He looks so unsure, the younger girl notes, so scared, so very worried. The man, his light blue eyes strangely strained, short blonde hair standing in all directions, stares down at his wife with a hidden pain visible behind his orbs.

The young girl, barely thirteen, has her cerise eyes fixed on her adoptive sister. Her long and wavy lavender hair is tied into a braid that falls over her right shoulder. She's young; yet the two Hitai-ate; one used as a belt and the other as a bandanna, as well as the large sword strapped against her back gives her a fierce appearance.

"You are the Yondaime Hokage! Don't just gape at me like that!" An elder woman shouts at the base of the stone table. Her gray hair pulled up into a high, long ponytail. With hard, dark brown eyes she stares at the Hokage. "This much pain would kill a man! But women are strong!"

But the man can't tear his gaze away from the woman he loves. He doesn't want to. She's giving birth to his child for Kamis' sake! While constantly trying, and so far succeeding, to keep one of the world most powerful creatures inside of her, none the less.

"Minato-nii-chan" When he doesn't react to her soft inquiry she tries again, this time louder and more firm, "O-nii-chan!"

He still doesn't so much as move his eyes away from Kushina, but he answers the girl anyway. "Nanae, what is it?"

"She'll be fine, Kushina-nee-chan is strong" When his shoulders lowers slightly at her soothing tone, Nanae continues, "The Kyuubi won't give up without a fight, Minato-nii, and right now Kushina-nee can't battle it" This time, his head rises and he meets her soft cerise eyes. "You need to fight for her and to do that you need to focus all your attention onto that seal"

He swallows the lump he didn't even know was there until now and with a renewed spirit he starts to pump more chakra into his palms. His eyes don't leave his little sister, drawing strength from the never tiring teenager. The thirteen year old does what he is incapable of doing; supporting the love of his life. Without looking away from him, she holds onto Kushina with both hands and whispers comforting words, being both adults rock of security. Three years ago she had been sent to Konoha from Hanagakure as a liaison shinobi in training; to better cooperations and relations between the two Hidden Villages. Minato had taken her under his wing, as all other Jounin were to wary of the foreign child. Through the years the ninja of the Leaf have grown accustomed to the young Flower shinobi, even so much as to request her participation in missions. And during these three years she's worked herself well and thoroughly into both the third and fourth Hokages hearts.

But Minato freezes, his eyes widening slightly as the teen suddenly frowns. Nanae doesn't frown. Not ever. Never on missions. No matter how discontented she is, she never shows it. The small cease between her lavender eyebrows worries him. "Aniki, Anoue, Biwako-sama" Minato jerks into attention at the stiffness of her voice. "I'm heading out"

With wide eyes, Minato and the elder Sarutobi watch as she pries her hand away from Kushina, slowly and purposefully striding towards the exit. "Nanae, what a-"

She cuts the Hokage off, "You just focus on that seal, Nii-chi" Without another word, she zooms out of the caves entrance, leaving a sinking feeling in the threes bellies.

Leaving the shadows of the caverns opening, she carefully takes one step onto the wooden bridge. Her frown grows deeper; No ANBU visible. _This is not good. _She glances at both sides of the bridge, following it from left to right, before looking up at the wooden pillars right in front of her and then down onto the small lake below her. All four ANBU previously stationed there are gone, no traces left what so ever. Nanae narrows her eyes, examining the nearest trees while keeping her position guarding the entrance. Not so much as a single Konoha shinobi there either. _This is really not good._

_Tch! _Gritting her teeth, she decides to be precautious, very much so. She closes her eyes for a second, bringing a small amount of chakra to her orbs, before slipping her eyelids open once more. This time her black pupil is formed into a triangle and the three corners are stretched out onto the edges of her cerise iris, leaving three pointy pinkish ellipses. Without waiting for an enemy, she forms a couple of seals. "Iroton: Juu-Hachi Aoi Hotaru"

Eighteen blue fireflies, three feet long and equally wide, hovers above the ground in a circle around the teen. "Scatter!" She orders them and instantly they all disperse in all directions, soaring into the forest surrounding her. As she patiently waits, she sends a prayer up to her friends. _Come on Kushina, you can do it!_

Glancing around, she squints her new eyes, attempting to find any trace of bodies. They couldn't still be alive. She knows the ANBU mentality like the back of her hand. There's no way they would leave their posts unless they'd met opponents and if they had, they'd still drag themselves back unless, of course, they aren't conscious to do that. _Shit!_

If the situation had been any different, Nanae wouldn't be feeling like this; worried and on edge. If Kushina hadn't been in such a vulnerable state, or if Biwako-sama hadn't been anywhere near, then Nanae would be okay. But now, since that isn't the case, she is restricted, her options are severely limited. She can't do anything that will move her away from the entrance. She needs to keep herself between any nearing enemy and the dark opening of the cave. She won't budge, she simply refuses to.

But then she feels the disturbance. Four of her blue creatures have run into trouble, falling apart into liquid blue colour. _Four. Damnit!_

Praying she'll be enough to hinder four shinobi who've taken down three squads of Konoha's finest, although doubting her success.

Suddenly the leaves rustle on her right and out zips a cloaked figure, running right for her. Long, black cloak and an orange mask with black scratches. He doesn't pull out any kind of weapon, but Nanae does. Un-strapping her claymore from her back, she wields the large blade with her right hand. Five feet long, including the handle, it's a very intimidating sword. One side is plainly sharpened, but the other is forged into dozens of little razor-sharp edges. Her frown deepens significantly as the man runs right for her, right **at** her. _Which shinobi would ever attempt that?_

When he's within reach, she swings her large claymore right at his middle. Her blade swipes towards her left side and she awaits the moment he'll show some sort of reaction, but none comes. He runs right through her. _What the...?! That jutsu..._

Spinning around on her heel, she sees him sprinting towards the cave. Pushing off the ground, she makes another attempt at blocking his path. However, she doesn't even get near him as a katana is swung her way. Following the length of the smaller blade up to the hand controlling it, she finds a man a decade older than herself. With six large, nasty scars crossing his round face he seems to be an intimidating man, not to mention his very muscular and yet quite lean body. She lifts her claymore barely an inch, before slamming it down again, forcing the man to retreat a few feet. Nanae takes this opportunity to glance after the cloaked figure, only to find him entering the cavern. _Damnit!_

The katana-wielder comes at her again, forcing her attention on him once more. She grits her teeth in frustration, swiping at him with her blade several times, attempting to end this battle fast. But he dodges expertly, his short white locks being snubbed by her swords toothed side. She shoves the tip of her claymore down into the ground, before using it to lift her body up high, landing a strong kick onto his shoulder, sending him sprawling two dozen feet away. Retrieving her weapon, she rushes after the cloaked man. _He got past the damn barrier! _If Biwako-sama survives this whole ordeal, Nanae will surely give her a piece of her mind.

But it seems his goons won't let her go anywhere. Three of them, including the swordsman. _Fan-fucking-tastic..._

Nanae re-straps her sword onto her back, before rapidly forming seals. "Suiton: Mizu Kamikiri" She slams her hand down onto the lakes surface. Water rises and starts to head for her nearest enemy in a thin but high line, slicing his loosely fitted black pants. With a small surge of chakra, she makes the water take a U-turn. Before her opponents have time to counter, the slicer splits one of their torsos into two, ending his life. She sends the water after the second offender but the third, the swords-man, comes at her. She's forced to move and, as a result, loses her control over the element. She makes a backwards vault, spinning several times rapidly as she then lands on the lakes surface fifty feet away.

She once again attempts to take advantage of their position by water. "Raiton: Raikiri Jinrai" Her left hand starts to crackle with electricity. She jumps up into mid air, away from the liquid, as the lightning natured chakra grows larger and stronger around her hand. With wide eyes, the two men both start to take a step backwards. They seem to realize the danger of this S-rank jutsu. She doesn't want to give them enough time to move out of range, so she presses more chakra into her attack. She gives out a small gasp at the strain on her arm. Gritting her teeth, she pushes through it. When she finally releases her technique, it forms a giant ball of dangerous lightning right in front of her. It heads straight for the two men, but they barely dodge it. What they didn't count into their calculations was the very thing they're standing upon. A lake. Water.

They both fall through the water's surface as they get severely electrocuted while she lands on the nearby bridge. Wincing slightly at the sting of pain in her wrist, she watches as they spasm with pain. "Raiton: Raikiri Karada" Her entire body starts crackling with the aforementioned element. She makes a dive into the highly static lake, her Raikiri Karada protecting her from any other lightning based technique, including her own. While they're both still spasming from her latest attack, she makes swift work of their lives with her claymore.

Dripping wet, but otherwise alright, she walks back into the cave, only to find Minato and Kushina gone. But on the cavern ground lays Biwako-sama, the nurse and two ANBU. She checks their pulses only to find that Biwako-sama is still breathing faintly. Grabbing onto the old woman, she focuses her chakra into their bodies, closing her eyes. Using a jutsu she was taught by the Hanakage herself, she slips the both of them into a parallell dimenssion for a second, only to reappear again somewhere else in this world.

With smoke suddenly swivelling around her and the old Sarutobi beside her, the inhabitants of the building can't see them until she strides out of the small cloud. Her arms supporting the elders knees and back, she calls out, "Get her some help now!"

With one look at the wounded old lady, every doctor within sight rushes over. They all start to fuss, moving the fragile body away from Nanae. "Why didn't you heal her yourself? You're a medic-nin, aren't you?"

Turning her attention towards the white clad man, she gives him an impatient stare. "We might've just lost one of our precious elders, the Yondaime as well as his son and wife. I didn't have the damn time!"

-x-x-x-x-x-

**My characterizations may not be something you like. Please don't bother telling me this in a review. People have all sorts of interpretations of these characters, and I feel that as long as I have a good ass explanation for why they're acting the way they do - ****_and I do_**** - there shouldn't be any issue. I should also warn you that things in this story are not always what they appear and characters who may give you a wrong impression at the beginning...well, let's just say your opinion of them might be different at the end. I want that to be clear that everyone in this story ****_is flawed_****. That's good ol' human nature at it's finest.**

**I believe that when you change something, you alter the events that would have happened in the future...and the growth that they would've had doesn't happen. Or it happens in different ways. Its like throwing a pebble into a lake...the ripples. They affect everything and everyone...and has the potential to alter behaviors. Make sense? Probably not now, but it should as you keep reading. :)**


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